Tvardovsky chief editor of the journal. Abstract: A.T. Tvardovsky - publicist and editor of the Novy Mir magazine

"NEW WORLD", magazine. It has been published since 1925. Tvardovsky was twice in charge of this journal as editor-in-chief: the first time was from 1950 to 1954, when he was removed from the journal in connection with the publication of several sharp articles in it (“On Sincerity in Criticism” V . Pomerantseva and others). In 1958, Tvardovsky again took over the leadership of the journal. Under the leadership of Tvardovsky, Novy Mir satisfied the needs of the public consciousness aroused by the decisions of the 20th Congress of the CPSU. After the October Revolution of 1964, the dominance of the anti-creative, bureaucratic situation made the work in the magazine for Tvardovsky "most" to his liking, "the only conceivable form of literary and social activity", consecrated by the example of Pushkin, Nekrasov and other Russian writers. Tvardovsky's publication program was outlined in the article "On the Occasion of the Anniversary" (No. 1, 1965). It defined the “ideological and political positions” of the magazine: a truthful, realistic reflection of reality, in a simple but not simplified form, alien to formalistic intricacy, closer to the classical tradition, without avoiding new means of expression justified by the content.

The journal was distinguished by a special, new world ethics based on the need for truth. The essays by V. Ovechkin published in the journal marked the beginning of a bold and honest posing of acute issues of agricultural management. He was followed by E. Dorosh, G. Troepolsky, historian S. Utchenko. The desire for documentary and factuality, an understanding of the value of personal evidence, "human documents" manifested itself in such publications of the "New World" as the memoirs "People, Years, Life" by I. Ehrenburg, "Years of War" by General A.V. Gorbatov, "In a foreign land" L.D. Lyubimov, "The Diary of Nina Kosterina", military-historical essays by S.S. Smirnov, notes of the diplomat I.M. Maysky, the historical and revolutionary memoirs of E. Drabkina, and many other materials of extraordinary historical and literary value. The materials of the journalism and science department were full-fledged.
The magazine gathered around itself the best literary forces. The writers F. Abramov, V. Grossman, V. Bykov, V. Panova, I. Grekova, F. Iskander, Yu. Trifonov, E. Kazakevich, N. Ilyina, B. Mozhaev, V. Astafiev, from the senior generations - V. Kaverin, K. Paustovsky, V. Kataev; poets B. Pasternak, A. Akhmatova, N. Zabolotsky, O. Bergholz, M. Aliger, D. Samoilov, A. Zhigulin, A. Yashin; critics V. Lakshin, A. Sinyavsky, A. Svetov, I. Vinogradov, St. Rassadin, M. Shcheglov... Fresh literary forces - V. Semin, S. Zalygin, V. Voinovich, V. Tendryakov, Ch. Aitmatov, R. Gamzatov, Yu. Burtin - became the opening of the journal. A special merit of Tvardovsky and his journal is the introduction to literature by A.I. Solzhenitsyn with his story "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich" (1962, No. 11). During these years, the magazine earned the attention and support of readers and in their eyes determined the level of the then literature.
The democratic direction of the magazine caused attacks by the conservative press (Oktyabr magazine, Literaturnaya Zhizn newspapers). Censorship was rampant, as a result of which the issues of the magazine were constantly late with the release. Readers reacted to this with understanding. Tvardovsky was forced, in defending the magazine, to go to the "instances", "on the carpet" and "there is soap" (his words). The words “allusion”, “Tvard's heresy”, “one tvard” sounded in the language of the press - as a measure of the resistance of a journalist against the raging authorities. Despite the monstrous pressure, Russian literature of a high standard was alive in the "New World" and turned out to be "inexorable" (V. Kaverin). The base "secretary", "cardboard literature", "literary cutters" felt uncomfortable against such a background. In the magazine Ogonyok (1969, No. 30), a letter (in fact, a denunciation) appeared from eleven writers demanding Tvardovsky's resignation.
In the attacks on Novy Mir, the authorities used a new tactic: shuffling the composition of the editorial board and infiltrating it with alien members. After one such action, the editorial board of the journal was completely ruined and it became impossible to keep the journal in the same spirit. February 9, 1970 Tvardovsky left the post of editor-in-chief.
The uncompromising position of the "New World", led by Tvardovsky, is a heroic page in modern history. No other magazine has gone so far in moral resistance to totalitarianism. The "New World" of Tvardovsky and A. Solzhenitsyn, more than anyone else, prepared the country for the liberation of opinions and the abolition of censorship, for the true flowering of the main currents of Russian literature in the last decades of the 20th century.

Nikolai Troitsky, political observer for RIA Novosti.

Alexander Trifonovich Tvardovsky, whose birth centenary falls on June 21, is one of the majestic, but contradictory figures to the point of duality. There were many such among the outstanding Soviet artists.

Laureate of three Stalin, State and Lenin Prizes. Cavalier of three orders of Lenin, the Red Banner of Labor and many others. Member of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR. Candidate member of the Central Committee of the CPSU. The holders of so many awards, titles and titles are usually considered favored by the authorities, but in this case everything is much more complicated.

Tvardovsky never bronzed, did not become a Soviet literary "general". A true natural poet, he did not fit into the official framework of socialist realism. And although he was neither a rebel nor a frondeur by nature, his relations with the authorities developed double-edged and very conflicting, there were truces, but war broke out every now and then.

Here clarifications are required. It is clear that in Stalin's time Tvardovsky did not fight with the authorities, serious conflicts with the top began much later. And power is a multi-layered concept. The poet quarreled a lot and often with literary bosses from the Writers' Union and with ideological curators from Staraya Square (there was a complex of buildings of the Central Committee of the CPSU). But the leaders themselves rescued him twice.
The first was Stalin. The Tvardovsky family was among the dispossessed, although his father was never a real fist, but he loved his land too much and categorically did not want to be socialized. Here is how the poet wrote about it in his memoirs:
“This land - ten and a few acres - all in small swamps and all overgrown with willow, spruce, birch, was in every sense unenviable. But for the father, who was the only son of a landless soldier and who, through many years of hard work as a blacksmith, earned the amount necessary for the first installment in the bank, this land was a road to holiness. From a very young age, he inspired us children with love and respect for this sour, stingy, but our land - our “estate”, as he jokingly and not jokingly called his farm.

In the 30s of the twentieth century, such feelings for their land were called "private-ownership instincts", for which Tvardovsky Sr. suffered along with his whole family. Or rather, almost all over. These “instincts” were alien to Tvardovsky Jr., he left his family in his youth, moved to Smolensk and lived independently. Nevertheless, immediately after the dispossession of his relatives, the young poet was subjected to severe persecution. Denunciations came, his closest friends were arrested, he himself was publicly denounced in the regional press, ranked as an "enemy rump". He was on the verge of death - and suddenly received the Order of Lenin, and then the Stalin Prize for the poem "Country Ant". The situation turned upside down, and the unexpected order bearer not only ascended himself, but even managed to pull his family out of exile.
It is not known for certain about the leader’s goodwill towards Tvardovsky (after all, at that time he did not reach Bulgakov or Pasternak, whom Stalin personally called and arranged their fate), but without the most important person in the USSR, questions about prizes and orders were not resolved, the leader always delved into everything little things.

And he met with warm gratitude from the beneficent poet. “From that time, and even until that time, as he said that the son is not responsible for the father, I was filled with faith in him and deification, not allowing an iota of doubt or, even more so, skepticism. I was a Stalinist, although not an oak one, ”Tvardovsky admitted in the last years of his life.

It is "not oak." All subsequent conflicts and troubles followed from this. Tvardovsky was a deeply Soviet person. He believed that he was participating in the construction of a new world - then still with a lowercase letter and without quotes. He believed in Soviet ideals and demanded from his colleagues in the Union of Writers, and even party leaders, that they correspond to these ideals. But reality was at odds with theory, the poet, over time, more and more clearly understood this. Which led to duality and discord, which Alexander Trifonovich also tried to overcome in the old domestic way - he was looking for oblivion in alcohol.

The new world without quotes turned out to be a harsh utopia. But the reality was the magazine "New World", which became the most important part of the life and fate of Tvardovsky.

It is difficult to assess which of his contributions to Russian literature was more significant - the great poem "Vasily Terkin" or the magazine, from the pages of which dozens of outstanding poets, writers and publicists started. Yes, probably, there is no need to weigh anything here, these contributions are equal.

Tvardovsky was editor-in-chief of Novy Mir twice, in 1950-54 and in 1958-69. But the first episode does not go to any comparison with the second. True takeoff happened already under Khrushchev, when the magazine became the collective ruler of the thoughts of the Soviet intelligentsia, especially the sixties.

Tvardovsky met personally with Nikita Sergeevich, and more than once, and through him he punched the loudest and most scandalous publications - “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich” by Alexander Solzhenitsyn and his poem “Terkin in the Other World”. This continuation of the “poem about a fighter” was very sharp, poisonous and satirical, it was subsequently banned, but through the halo of the “forbidden fruit” it is impossible not to notice that in terms of poetry, the second Terkin is much inferior to the first and main one.

Novy Mir is often compared to Sovremennik and Otechestvennye Zapiski by Nekrasov and Saltykov-Shchedrin. This is a completely valid comparison, but we must not forget about the differences. The magazines of the times of the Russian Empire were "private shops", the state intervened in their work only through censorship. And Tvardovsky was appointed by the party and the government. And this also showed the duality of the position of the editor-in-chief. He could not be a dissident and anti-Soviet, he was an official, in fact - one of the military leaders of the ideological front.

Tvardovsky and fought for a brighter future - as he understood it. Higher ideological leaders like Mikhail Suslov did not meet his ideas with understanding, and even caused sharp rejection. At first, Khrushchev came to the rescue. When he was removed, the leaders of the party and government no longer honored the poet and editor with a personal audience. They harassed the magazine with censorship nit-picking, organized whole campaigns of vilification in the press, but the editor-in-chief was not fired for a long time. Added only after six years.

After leaving the "New World" Tvardovsky did not live long. Most likely, it was not even excommunication from his beloved work that finally knocked him down. Unlike his literary "godson" Solzhenitsyn, who waged an uncompromising struggle against the Soviet regime, Tvardovsky did not consider himself an "alien element." It was unbearably painful for him to receive a blow from the authorities, whose representatives he never considered enemies. So he did not endure the terrible persecution, in which, as the poet Alexander Mezhirov wrote, "artillery hits its own."

“Cities are surrendered by soldiers, generals take them…”

A.T. Tvardovsky.

Russian poet, editor of the literary magazine Novy Mir.

“In the development and growth of my literary generation, it seems to me that the most difficult and destructive thing for many of my peers was that we, being drawn into literary work, appearing in the press, and even becoming already “professional” writers, remained people without any serious common culture, no education. Superficial erudition, some awareness of the "small secrets" of the craft nourished dangerous illusions in us.

Tvardovsky A.T., Autobiography / Collected works in 6 volumes, Volume 1, M., “Fiction”, 1979, p. 23.

The most famous work is the poem: “Vasily Terkin. A book about a fighter" was written during the Great Patriotic War, although the hero himself was invented by the author for a military newspaper back in 1939.

“He loved everything beautiful. And he understood this. A beautiful song, poetry, some northern bast tuyesok, beautiful people. And smart. We had a friend in common with him, a critic, no longer young, a well-educated man, with his own, it is true, oddities, over which Trifonych sometimes liked to tease. But somehow, speaking specifically about him, he said: “You know why I forgive smart people a lot - except meanness, of course - this is because they don’t know a lot and never hide it. And the fool - did you notice it? - always knows everything. Always and everything..." He didn't like fools. Physically did not bear. And especially for the fact that they always teach. This is the first sign of fools. “Beware of advice,” he said. “Fools almost always give them. They love it very much. And people who refer to common sense, too, beware. Know fools. This is their main argument. After all, they are the most positive, most serious people in the world. Seriously, yes, yes! Remember this for the rest of your life." […] And he also knew how to rejoice in someone else's success. Sincerely, genuinely. The appearance of a talented manuscript unsettled him. About one of them, I remember, he talked incessantly all day long, enthusiastically read separate passages from it, his eyes shining. He fell ill with such manuscripts and later defended them in all instances with skill and perseverance inherent only to him. […] Many believed that Tvardovsky It is important that it is difficult to approach him. No, he was only important in the restaurant. It worked flawlessly for the waiters, which was required. […] No, he was not important. Importance is the lot of stupid people. He simply did not like familiarity very much, he was not familiar with everyone and did not consider it necessary to embrace anyone who rushed to him across the hall shouting: “Sasha!” And there were a great many of them. “Do you remember, Sasha, how we are together ...” No, I didn’t remember. And I'm not sure what it was. Hence the importance."

Nekrasov V.P., Tvardovsky, in Sat.: A.T. Twardowski: Pro et Contra. Personality and creativity of A.T. Tvardovsky in the assessments of figures of national culture, St. Petersburg, "Russian Christian Academy for the Humanities", 2010, p. 699-700.

In the period from 1950 to 1954 and from 1958 to 1970 - A.T. Tvardovsky was appointed editor-in-chief of the Novy Mir magazine. In the 60s of the XX century, thanks to his efforts, the "New World" became the focus and symbol of the "Khrushchev thaw".

"When Tvardovsky became the first editor-in-chief of the magazine, Marshak told him that a person often deteriorates if a lot of people pass through his life, and even whose fate sometimes depends on him, - and warned him. Speaking about this, Alexander Trifonovich remarked:
“How true!”

Vanshenkin K.Ya., Writers' Club, M., Vagrius, 1998, p. 106.

« Tvardovsky fought in the magazine for every worthwhile thing, because he knew (he deduced a law that he was very proud of - the testimony of V.Ya. Lakshin) that every bad book inevitably drags along a line of useless, gray literature. He dreamed that each magazine book was as dense as possible. Density is a Novomir category for the quality of a room, dating back to the time of the first editorship of Tvardovsky.

Askoldova-Lund M., The plot of a breakthrough. How Tvardovsky's "New World" began, in Sat.: A.T. Twardowski: Pro et Contra. Personality and creativity of A.T. Tvardovsky in the assessments of figures of national culture, St. Petersburg, "Russian Christian Academy for the Humanities", 2010, p. 823.

Lazar Lazarev: “The first frosts struck when they removed Tvardovsky. He proposed to print the first version of "Torkin in the next world." The work was regarded as libelous.
To this was added several articles that were published under him in the Novy Mir: they simply caused fury. There was another, the most important article, around which just a storm arose: Vladimir Pomerantsev's article "On Sincerity in Literature." She urged writers to be honest. This was one of the main points of accusation against Tvardovsky. What happened around this article is hard to imagine.
The collection "Literary Moscow" was published.
It was created without censorship. This collection was headed by Kazakevich, Aliger and Beck.
Yashin's story "Levers" was printed in the collection. After him, this word came into use - "levers".
There has been resistance among writers because the writer - if he is a real writer - wants to write the truth. They didn't let me write the truth."

Quoted from the book: Lurie L., Malyarova I., 1956, Middle of the century, St. Petersburg, "Neva", 2007, p. 292-293.

"New world" Tvardovsky, who refused to support the invasion of Czechoslovakia and continued to defend the line of the XX Congress, was under attack from the nationalists and Stalinists. The reactionary magazines Oktyabr and Molodaya Gvardiya spoke out against the "misguided intellectuals" who fell under the "pernicious influence" of the West, which threatened the special Russian spirit and way of life. “There is no more fierce enemy for the people than the temptation of bourgeois well-being,” wrote the Young Guard, advising the Kremlin to rely on “a simple Russian peasant.”

Fighting off nationalist attacks, the defenders of the "New World" used the Marxist postulates of internationalism and equality as a shield. Attack on Tvardovsky nevertheless continued: the KGB did not disregard the natural connection between the publications in the "New World" and the "bourgeois" ideas of freedom in the economy and personal life. "Spark" under the command Sofronova willingly joined the persecution Tvardovsky, publishing a collective letter of eleven little-known writers.

It was impossible to fire Tvardovsky “quietly”: he was protected both by his literary fame and the status of a candidate member of the Central Committee of the CPSU. The Kremlin was forced to remove the editor-in-chief in several stages, first dismissing his first deputies and forcing his resignation, which he submitted on February 12, 1970. On the same day, he received a call from the Central Committee and was informed that he would continue to receive a generous salary, special rations from the Kremlin distributor, and also remain attached to the Kremlin hospital.

In addition, he was promised that a collection of his poems would be released in a special, deluxe edition. “So, instead of a magazine -“ the ruler of thoughts ”, - the Kremlin food, a sinecure of 500 rubles and the prospect of my anniversary being celebrated at the“ highest level ”,- recorded Tvardovsky in the diary. Tvardovsky did not survive the loss of the journal and compensation by the “sinecure”.

Ostrovsky A.M., Says and shows Russia, Journey from the future to the past by the media, M., "Ast"; Corups, 2019, p. pp.79-80.

After the removal by the Authorities of A.T. Tvardovsky from the post of editor-in-chief of the journal« New world» he died a year later...

“There are many ways to kill a poet.
For Tvardovsky it was chosen: to take away his offspring - his passion - his magazine.
The sixteen-year humiliations humbly endured by this hero were not enough - if only the magazine could hold out, if only literature would not be interrupted, if only people would be printed and people would read!
Few! - and added a burning sensation from dispersal, from defeat, from injustice. This burning sensation burned him in half a year, six months later he was already mortally ill and only by habitual endurance lived up to now - until the last hour in consciousness. […]
You must not know at all, not understand the last century of Russian history, in order to see this as your victory, and not an irreparable miscalculation.

Crazy! When young, sharp voices are heard, you will still regret that this patient critic is not with you, whose soft exhorting voice was heard by everyone. It will be just right for you to rake the earth with your hands in order to return Trifonych. It's too late."

Solzhenitsyn A.I., Memorial word about Tvardovsky / Journalism in 3 volumes, Volume 2, Public statements, letters, interviews, Yaroslavl, Upper Volga Book Publishing House, 1996, p. 41-42.

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"Poet Tvardovsky" - For the first time the name of Tvardovsky saw the light on February 15, 1925. Sasha was dressed in a jacket made of sheepskin. First pen test. A.T. Tvardovsky. Smolensk. And everything else is more forest Not to live for sure - Without what? Pages of life and creativity. Smolensk region, farm Zagorye ... The birthplace of the great Russian poet A.T. Tvardovsky.

“Literature Tvardovsky” - A. Tvardovsky called the years of collectivization that began soon in his “Autobiography” the most significant in his life. But it was much easier for him!” (K. Chukovsky). Father of the poet Trifon Gordeevich. Being, according to his brother, “a sincere Komsomol member of the twenties”, an ardent champion of the new, Alexander could not avoid conflicts with his father, who lived and thought according to the original “peasant rules”, and already in 1928 he left his native home forever with the hope of realizing himself.

"Alexander Tvardovsky" - Born June 8, 1910 Died December 18, 1971. With daughter Valya. 1936 Smells like fresh pine resin. The first books of Tvardovsky. Works about the war. The beginning of creative activity. After graduating in 1939. New hut. The book is immediately published and enjoys unprecedented popularity. Vasily Terkin.

"Life of Tvardovsky" - A monument to the author and hero of the "Book about a fighter." And he wears it importantly, with respect wears the Public Armenian and boots ... A.T. Tvardovsky's mother. What do you consider it necessary to “take with you into life”? He studied at a rural school. What artistic means are used? Literature. A. T. Tvardovsky and Smolensk writers. 1910 - 1971.

Censorship Winner.

40 years ago, in February 1970, Tvardovsky's Novy Mir was destroyed - a unique example of Soviet censored freethinking, a magazine on which the perestroika generation grew up

The history of the "New World" Tvardovsky * * Alexander Tvardovsky (1910-1971) was the chief editor of Novy Mir in 1950-1954 and 1958-1970. ended with the decision of the bureau of the secretariat of the board of the Union of Writers (SP) of the USSR on February 9, 1970 to remove key employees of the journal from the editorial board: Vladimir Lakshin, Alexei Kondratovich, Igor Sats, Igor Vinogradov. This was followed by Alexander Tvardovsky's predictable resignation. As early as February 10, Alexander Solzhenitsyn urged the editor-in-chief to stay in order to at least try to do something with a small number of loyal employees. On February 11, Litgazeta published the decision of the "bureau of the secretariat of the board" on changes in the editorial board and the appearance of ideologically faithful functionaries in it. Subsequently, the head of the department of culture of the Central Committee, Albert Belyaev, who oversaw literature, admits that the secretariat of the joint venture was given strict instructions to remove Tvardovsky.
On the 12th, Alexander Trifonovich will write down in his workbooks: “I am packing things.”
The February issue of the magazine, which was completely formed by the old editorial board, was signed for printing by the new editor Viktor Kosolapov, the former head of the Khudozhestvennaya Literatura publishing house. And therefore, the impression was created that the line of the "New World" was preserved. And in the Central Committee, as follows from the diary of "Novomir" Alexei Kondratovich, the new editorial board was given an order: "Make the magazine no worse than it was." But it was clear that this was impossible. Yuri Grigorievich Burtin, * * Yuri Burtin (1932-2000) - historian, publicist, literary critic. In Novy Mir, he edited the Politics and Science section. who submitted a letter of resignation to the new editor, wrote to colleagues: remaining on the editorial board, "we become direct and very valuable accomplices in crime, a tool in the hands of the organizers of the Stalinist coup."

From sincerity to freedom

The first time Tvardovsky was removed from the editorship of Novy Mir was in 1954 for Vladimir Pomerantsev's article "On Sincerity in Literature". (Once on Staraya Square at the party functionary Dmitry Polikarpov, the “legendary” character who personally yelled at Boris Pasternak, Vladimir Pomerantsev, a former prosecutor who pulled innocent people out of prison, said: “We don’t understand each other, comrade Polikarpov. You don’t need freedom, but I need it.") Then the concept of "sincerity" was transformed into the concept of "truth", which was fundamental for the "New World" of the 60s. The truth was more important for Tvardovsky than the artistic merits of literature: he always looked for factual material in the texts and did not like, as he put it, "fiction". The struggle for truth for Tvardovsky, a poet favored by the authorities, the author of the famous "Vasily Terkin", * * When Pasternak, during a public speech, was asked which work about the war he considered the most important, he named "Vasily Terkin". And in response to laughter in the hall, he angrily exclaimed: “I didn’t come here to joke!” turned into a fight for freedom. By the end of the existence of the "Tvard" "New World", Solzhenitsyn was already smashed, from which the large-scale fame of the magazine began, * * One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich was published in 1962. and the editor-in-chief himself turned out to be a banned author: the poem "By the Right of Memory" was not allowed to pass the censorship. In January 1970, the poem was published in the West: in the Italian magazine Espresso, in Sowing, in an appendix to Figaro. "What am I? Who am I? - wrote on January 16, 1970 in Tvardovsky's diary. “The editor-in-chief of Novy Mir or the author of a poem published in foreign editions, previously banned at home by censorship?” This situation was completely unusual for him, and he even agreed to oppose publications in the West, but only if the poem was discussed at the secretariat of the Writers' Union. All of this turned out to be a waste of time.

Sense of mission

According to Vladimir Yakovlevich Lakshin, * * Vladimir Lakshin (1933-1993) is a well-known literary critic and literary historian. Since 1962 - member of the editorial board, in 1967-1970. Deputy Editor-in-Chief of Novy Mir. Tvardovsky really got into the magazine as a mission in 1960. After the publication of Ivan Denisovich, already in 1963, there were rumors about the resignation of Tvardovsky and a massive attack on Novy Mir in the press, including in the liberal Izvestia, with which Novy Mir shared a printing house. For example, the now living Melor Sturua distinguished himself by smashing the publication of Viktor Nekrasov's travel notes in Novy Mir: the feuilleton was called The Tourist with a Cane. On April 23, 1963, Lakshin writes down Tvardovsky's key words about the journal's mission: “We don't have the right idea about the scale of the work that we are doing. For contemporaries, there are always different ratios than in history. The chamber junker Pushkin could seem to someone a third-rate detail in the biography of the powerful Benckendorff. And it turns out the opposite. Ilyichev * * Leonid Ilyichev - Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee for Ideology. forget, but we will stay with you.
In 1965, on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of Novy Mir, the editorial board published its own, in fact, manifesto. The abstracts of Tvardovsky's article "On the occasion of the anniversary" were written by Vladimir Lakshin and Alexander Dementyev (he, together with Boris Zaks, would be removed from his post in 1966, inflicting a tangible blow on Tvardovsky; Lakshin would work as deputy chief, without being officially approved in the position). And although the editorial was crippled in the sharpest places by censorship, it can be considered the political and aesthetic creed of the editor-in-chief. There are words here about Solzhenitsyn, and about the rejection of "underpainting life", and that the truth that is published on the pages of the magazine cannot be used by "enemies from the bourgeois world." “We welcome disputes, discussions, no matter how sharp they may be ... we do not intend to shy away from raising sharp questions and directness in our judgments and assessments. We stand on that." This “On this we stand”, crossed out, by the way, by censorship, was remembered for a long time later by Tvardovsky.
Tvardovsky's experience tells how to get rid of the temptation of self-censorship dictated by political circumstances. About the fact that you do not need to be afraid of anyone when you write the truth: "The magazine pays preferential attention to works that truthfully, realistically reflect reality." Back in 1963, at a high meeting, Tvardovsky entered into an argument with a major literary functionary Nikolai Gribachev, saying that real realism does not need the epithet "socialist". (Just like a democracy that does not need a crutch definition - "sovereign").
It must be understood that Tvardovsky's "New World" is also a set of aesthetic restrictions. The editor-in-chief accepted only the prose that he liked. He was not a dissident, he did not like "aestheticism", therefore many strong writers did not publish in the "New World". His attitude towards Yuri Trifonov was not easy. In December 1969, Tvardovsky managed to print Trifonov’s first story from the “Moscow” cycle, Exchange, but did not see a breakthrough in Russian prose in it: he was not interested in moral conflicts among the emerging urban middle class of late stagnation. As for political nuances, here, too, many on the "first floor", where the editors sat in the "New World", had complaints about the "second floor", where Tvardovsky and members of the editorial board were located. Too sharp materials, which were supplied by the "first floor", were often notoriously impassable for the magazine, the releases of the issues were invariably and painfully delayed. Actually, in the logic of the "ground floor" Solzhenitsyn's book "The calf butted with the oak" was written. But it was impossible to demand dissident and samizdat behavior from the censored journal, otherwise it would immediately cease to exist. And for Tvardovsky, as Burtin wrote, it was important to keep the journal "in order to continue the fight."

rout

After the events in Czechoslovakia in August 1968, it became clear that the magazine would not survive. (True, even before that, in June of the same year, a decision was made by the secretariat of the Central Committee on the removal of Tvardovsky and, according to Yuri Burtin, “only postponed by execution.”) The press of censorship intensified. In the summer of 1969, an attack by "patriots" began on the magazine: the famous "letter of eleven" was published in Ogonyok - a response to an article in Novy Mir by Alexander Dementyev "On Traditions and Nationality", where he dealt a tangible blow to Russian nationalism and the Stalinists from "Young Guard" and "Our Contemporary".
In the early 1990s, in an interview with the author of these lines, Yuri Grigoryevich Burtin, a rather dry, impeccably intelligent person with rock-solid democratic principles, said: the main pillar of the system, official Marxism, became weaker. It had to be not replaced, but supplemented, completed. Such an additional support was the state-patriotic ideology, the representatives of which were the Young Guard, and then Our Contemporary. They were never seriously offended ... Novy Mir was the spokesman for the anti-totalitarian line, the Young Guard became one of the forms of protection, holding the system, giving it additional persuasiveness.

Burtin's diaries for 1969. An entry dated July 26 about the “Ogonkovo” letter: “They haven’t written about us like that yet:“ It was on the pages of Novy Mir that A. Sinyavsky published his “critical” articles, alternating these speeches with foreign publications of anti-Soviet libels.” * * In the mid-60s, Burtin disrupted the defense of his own dissertation on Tvardovsky, expressing public gratitude to Andrei Sinyavsky, who was already serving a term at that time. July 31: “In the newspaper Socialist Industry” “An open letter to the editor-in-chief of Novy Mir” comrade. Tvardovsky A.T.” from the Hero of Socialist Labor turner Zakharov - the usual journalistic concoction, in a boorish tone. Etc.
In autumn, it became clear that the end of the "New World" was not far off.

***

The blue cover of Novy Mir was a symbol of freethinking and anti-Stalinism for the Soviet intelligentsia of the 60s. The significance of Tvardovsky's journal for the awakening of public consciousness turned out to be no less, and in terms of the volume of influence, certainly greater than uncensored literature and journalism, to which few had access. For Tvardovsky himself, the magazine, as it turned out, meant life - literally. Shortly after the defeat, he was diagnosed with advanced lung cancer, and on December 18, 1971, he died, going down in history not as a literary dignitary, and not even as a significant poet, which he certainly was, but as a great editor who defeated censorship. And what is even more important in the context of the current state of the Russian print media is self-censorship.

Subscription to Novy Mir was invariably restricted, and, for example, in Dnepropetrovsk, Brezhnev's homeland, it was banned altogether. In 1969-1970 the circulation of the magazine was 271 thousand copies.
And since 1986, with the beginning of "perestroika and glasnost", the journal was headed for the first time by a non-partisan writer - the famous prose writer Sergei Zalygin (1913-2000). Under him, in 1991, the magazine's circulation soared to a record high of 2,700,000 copies (circulation, in fact, was incredible for a thick literary magazine and only possible in the euphoria of the then "perestroika").